Debussy Ibéria
Bartók Piano Concerto No. 1
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet - excerpts
The Los Angeles Philharmonic's promenade concert under
its music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, like the proverbial curate's egg,
was bad in parts.
Salonen's account of Debussy's Iberia was highly polished yet
curiously, clinically sterile - surely not what the composer intended.
The orchestral textures were smoothed out, having the silky characteristics
of a Guilini interpretation. The second movement was scentless
and passionless, and as I scanned the audience they seemed bored. The
castanets seemed curiously mechanical, while the woodwind were woolly
and dull. The strings were suave but lacked attack; Salonen seemed as
detached from this score as the orchestra - it just never took off.
Listening to Toscanini's 1938 paradigmatic account of Iberia
with the NBC Symphony Orchestra illustrates perfectly where Salonen
went wrong.
Things improved a lot with the Bartok’s First Piano Concerto, with soloist
Yefim Bronfman. At last the LAPO got intense. The work opened
with a well-judged dialogue between pianist and timpanist; indeed, the
pianist produced a percussive tone which blended well with the percussion
section. The hushed Andante produced subterranean sounds from
Bronfman more like Schubert than Bartok, and the four percussionists
who echoed each other's tapping sounds were only occasionally drowned
out by the usual coterie of coughers. From there on the piece gathered
momentum, progressing helter-skelter to the climactic and triumphant
final thud from the entire orchestra. For an encore, Bronfman played
part of Scarlatti's D-major sonata, a curious but delightful choice.
Salonen chose movements from all three of the composer's suites for
the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet excerpts, and this proved to be the most
inspired part of the announced programme. The orchestra was at its most
expressive and sonorous. The strings were particularly expressive, producing
a whole gamut of sounds evoking sensations sometimes sweet, sometimes
sour, sometimes sharp. The brass section, especially the trombones,
really shone in the ‘Montagues and Capulets’ section, combining warmth
of tone with necessary bite; by contrast, the woodwind were weak, lacking
focus and immediacy. Notably intense was ‘Tybalt's Death’, which
Salonen paced with perfect timing, resisting the temptation to milk
the drama in the way that Celibidache did in his notorious slow-motion
renditions.
By way of an encore, the concert ended with the’ Apotheose: Le Jardin
feerique’ from Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, which was ironically
the best played and conducted piece of the entire evening. Salonen
pushed the orchestra to new heights, perfectly judging the build up
from the opening solemn strings to the full orchestral climax, producing
on the way a sparkling aura of sensations. This was one of the most
vivacious and magical accounts I have heard of this movement, and it
is a pity Salonen didn't choose to conduct the entire suite as part
of the programme.
Alex Russell
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